1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method of ordering, shipping and merchandising packaged goods, which come in various sizes, shapes and numbers (for instance, blister card dry cell battery packages of different sizes and numbers of batteries). Still more specifically, the invention relates to such a method which minimizes the amount of packing and maximizes flexibility so that the retailer may economically order a wide variety of combinations of such packages. At the same time, the invention involves the packing assembly used with the method and which readily serves as a display container for floor displays or pallet displays of the goods.
Applying the invention to dry cell batteries to better illustrate it, retailers of dry cell batteries must offer their customers the choice of batteries of various sizes, i.e. "D", "C", "AA", "AAA", "9 Volt", etc. The customers of these retailers, as is well known, need different batteries for a wide variety of uses. For instance, a hunter's flashlight will carry two or more "D" size batteries; a portable radio/cassette player may carry four "AAA" batteries; a smoke detector may require a 9 Volt battery, etc.
The retailer's stock will ideally, of course, reflect his customer's needs. These needs will be different. For instance, a retailer in a city may require a large number of "AAA" batteries for his customers' "Walkman" electronic devices, while a rural retailer might have more of a call for portable lighting for power outages and which might use "D", "C", "AA". Thus, the battery salesman, when he calls on his retailers, will take various factors into consideration in predicting the needs of the retailer, and the retailer himself may have a good idea of what his future stock should be.
At the same time, both the salesman and the retailer are concerned that all available sizes of batteries be placed on display with a minimum of stockperson's time and a minimum of fuss and wastemaking.
2. Description of Related Art including Information Disclosed under .sctn..sctn.1.97 to 1.99
In my U.S. Pat. No. 4,825,624 assigned to my assignee, there is disclosed a meritorious method by which a shipping container has three compartments all containing one variety or size of battery in blister card display. Each side of the containers of this patent has a flap. The containers are separately filled, the flaps are closed and taped and the containers are separately shipped to a destination.
At the destination the shipping containers of my earlier patent are all opened and their flaps downturned. They are then placed together in an open-top box thus forming a promotional display without having to individually transfer the blister cards at the place of assembly.